I have always enjoyed giving my actor and writer sims "real" projects for their stories. Like Violet Deppiesse's sci-fi novel series having real titles and even plot summaries. Or describing what kind of short stories Aurora Harris used to write. Or that Nathan Lind once wrote a flop of a pulp legal thriller. Or knowing exactly what kind of soap opera Bella Bradshaw (stage name Isabelle Gibson) used to act in. My sims are never allowed to just make up filler titles and descriptions for their work. I suppose, as a writer in real life, I'd be annoyed that they got to fake it so easily, lol!
Summer was lucky enough to be picked for this project before acting was even a thing in TS4. I needed a character to be my avatar in FFXV Comrades, and she fit the bill! The story goes that she was drumming with her awful band one night and a producer saw her banging on things and thought, hey, she'd look really great with a sword. So he asked her to audition. The film was meant to be a minor B movie spin-off in a niche franchise, so it was no big deal that she was a complete unknown to the acting world. She had the right look, so she landed the part. As these things sometimes go.
Now that we have a real acting career in TS4, I've decided that my sims can enter it in two ways. (Because it would be no fun for me if every sim who ever caught a whim to be an actor could just become one, barring all skill, talent, and luck.)
1.) I might pick them, the way I picked Summer, hand out of the sky, to exist in some other non-TS4 game. I will imagine them to be actors in a movie based on that game, and I'll make up a little "movie" with the screenshots. Then in TS4 gameplay, I'll assign them a certain number of gigs in a corresponding genre that they're allowed to perform for money.
2.) Otherwise, they'll have to wait for a role provided by a TS4 sim movie producer. I have a couple of aspiring directors among my sims. Whenever one of them is ready to produce a film, TV show, or commercial, they will audition hopeful actors and pick their favorites for the roles. That sim producer will assign how many gigs and what kind of scenes they can perform for their pay. As they work, I may take a few screenshots to make up a little "movie" and blurb to show off their project.
Like this:
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